page_title: United States presidential impeachment
section_title: Procedure
hierarchical_section_title: United States presidential impeachment / Procedure
caption_attribution_description: English: US Postage Stamp depicting delegates at the signing of the US Constitution.
context_page_description: The Constitution of the United States gives Congress the authority to remove the president of the United States from office in two separate proceedings. The first one takes place in the House of Representatives which impeaches the president by approving articles of impeachment through a simple majority vote. The second proceeding, the impeachment trial, takes place in the Senate. There, conviction on any of the articles requires a two-thirds majority vote and results in the removal from office.
  Three United States presidents have been impeached: Andrew Johnson in 1868, Bill Clinton in 1998, and Donald Trump in 2019. All were acquitted by the Senate.
context_section_description: Article I, Section 2, Clause 5 of the U.S. Constitution provides:
  The House of Representatives ... shall have the sole Power of Impeachment.
  Article I, Section 3, Clauses 6 and 7 provide:
  The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments. When sitting for that Purpose, they shall be on Oath or Affirmation. When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside: And no Person shall be convicted without the Concurrence of two-thirds of the Members present.
  Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States; but the Party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law.
  Article II, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution limits the grounds of impeaching a president to "Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors". Because the precise meaning of the phrase "high crimes and misdemeanors" is not defined in the Constitution itself, it is left open to the interpretation of Congress, especially since the U.S. Supreme Court decided in Nixon v. United States that it did not have the authority to determine whether the Senate properly "tried" a defendant. Congress has, however, identified three general types of conduct that constitute grounds for impeachment, although these categories should not be understood as exhaustive:
  Improperly exceeding or abusing the powers of the office.
  Behavior incompatible with the function and purpose of the office.
  Misusing the office for an improper purpose or for personal gain.
  Other than the above constitutional provisions, the exact details of the presidential impeachment process are left up to Congress. Thus, a number of rules have been adopted by the House and Senate and are honored by tradition. Among them, The House Practice: A Guide to the Rules, Precedents and Procedures of the House, prepared by the House Parliamentarian, is a reference source for information on the rules and selected precedents governing the House procedure. Each Congress adopts its own rules. In 1974, as part of the preliminary investigation in the Nixon impeachment inquiry, the staff of the Impeachment Inquiry of the House Judiciary Committee prepared a report, Constitutional Grounds for Presidential Impeachment. This 1974 report has been expanded and revised on several occasions by the Congressional Research Service, now known as Impeachment and Removal. The Senate has formal Rules and Procedures of Practice in the Senate When Sitting on Impeachment Trials. Nevertheless, both the House and the Senate are free to modify the procedures for each presidential impeachment and trial, respectively.
  An impeachment proceeding formally begins with a resolution adopted by the full House of Representatives, which typically includes a referral to a House committee to proceed with an impeachment inquiry. The House Judiciary Committee then determines whether grounds for impeachment exist. If the committee finds grounds for impeachment, it will set forth specific allegations of misconduct in one or more articles of impeachment. These articles of impeachment are then reported to the full House with the committee's recommendations.
  The House then debates on the article of impeachments, either individually or the full resolution. A simple majority of those present and voting is required for each article for the resolution as a whole to pass. Upon passage, the president has been impeached. The House then selects "House managers" to present the case to the Senate, in a role analogous to the prosecution or district attorney in a standard criminal trial. Finally, the House adopts a resolution to notify formally and present the passed articles of impeachment to the Senate.
  The proceedings in the Senate unfold similar to a jury trial, with the chief justice presiding and Senate members acting as the jury. The House managers present their case and the president has the right to mount a defense with thei
caption: A postage stamp depicting the signing of the United States Constitution.
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